Honoring sacrifice 150 years later

John Auten Day salutes Civil War veteran

SOUTH BEND - A procession honoring the life of John Auten moved west Saturday along Washington Street, following a group of men in Civil War-era military uniforms.

Their destination was City Cemetery, and their purpose was to recognize Auten’s sacrifice 150 years after he became the first Union soldier from St. Joseph County to be killed in the Civil War.

A farmer’s son, Auten was cut down by enemy fire during a scouting expedition July 10, 1861, in Virginia. The 22-year-old’s body was returned home and buried Aug. 2, 1861, with full military honors.

The procession Saturday, beginning at the Old County Courthouse on Lafayette Boulevard, followed the same path as his funeral, which an estimated 5,000 people attended a century and a half ago.

It was part of John Auten Day, which South Bend officials declared to remember the man himself as well as mark the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War.

Gabe Melinn, a great-great-grandnephew of Auten, traveled from the Grand Rapids area for the events. “It’s a very humbling experience to have an ancestor that gave his life for a cause he believed in,” he said while walking with his daughter Alexis, 15, toward the cemetery.

John Auten Day included Civil War re-enactment events at Center for History, a wreath-laying ceremony and posting of the guard at Civil War Soldiers & Sailors Monument on the north lawn of the County Courthouse, and the unveiling of a new headstone at Auten’s grave site in City Cemetery, complete with cannon fire and a 21-gun salute performed by Civil War re-enactors.

Nine of Auten’s descendants were on hand Saturday.

Dan McDonald, who lives in Atlanta and is another great-great-grandnephew, found out about the events while randomly searching for “John Auten” on the Internet about three weeks ago.

Cynthia Melinn, Gabe’s mother, also traveled from Grand Rapids for John Auten Day.

She said her mother, Roberta DuShane Burke, had researched family history extensively, and family members have traveled as far as Gettysburg, Pa., and Deerfield, Mass., to learn about their genealogy. The family visited South Bend several years ago to see Auten’s grave site.

Unfortunately, Burke couldn’t witness John Auten Day. She died last year.

“She would have been in heaven. This was her thing,” Cynthia Melinn said of her mother, adding that she and her children continue to emphasize the importance of understanding family history.

Auten is just one of many, many Civil Warveterans buried in City Cemetery.

Mike Downs, a John Auten Day organizer and junior vice commander for the Indiana Department of the Sons of Union Veterans, said such events are important reminders.

“We wouldn’t be the United States,” Downs said, “if it wasn’t for the sacrifices these guys made.”